Courage, Dear Heart

Psalm 27:14 English Standard Version (ESV)

14 Wait for the Lord;

    be strong, and let your heart take courage;

    wait for the Lord!

Isaiah 41:13 English Standard Version (ESV)

13 For I, the Lord your God,

    hold your right hand;

it is I who say to you, “Fear not,

    I am the one who helps you.”

“Here is the world. Beautiful and terrible things will happen. Don't be afraid.”

― Frederick Buechner, Beyond Words: Daily Readings in the ABC's of Faith

Often times it's a mystery to me to discover what song God wants me next to upload.  It starts with an image that makes me pause then there's the song.  This week it was "Daylight" by J J Heller.  Her inspiration for the song was her own battle with panic attacks.  I believe there are many hurts both physical and emotional that can keep us on the inside looking out.  It's scary out there but we are kept by a big, courageous and loving God.  Battle on, warrior, battle on.

Daylight - J J Heller

Lord, I’ve been afraid for so long

I’ve prayed so many times to be strong

I sit here in the desert making circles in the sand

But you’re telling me you’re the promise land

There is an inch of daylight underneath the door

It’s enough for me to fill up my canteen

Food and water are only buying time

If I want to live, Your love is what I need

I’m scared to death of taking the wrong turn

Peace is something nobody can earn

There’s no chance now of losing when you’ve given me Your love

You healed the disease I was dying of

There is an inch of daylight underneath the door

It’s enough for me to fill up my canteen

Food and water are only buying time

If I want to live, Your love is what I need

Be near me

Be near me now

Be near me

Be near me now

There is an inch of daylight underneath the door

It’s enough for me to fill up my canteen

Food and water are only buying time

If I want to live, Your love is what I need

If I want to live, Your love is what I need

C.S. Lewis and Linus on Christmas

What Is Christmas All About? | A Charlie Brown Christmas

I Like This

Onward, Christians

If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were precisely those who thought most of the next. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this.

C. S. Lewis

Onward Christian Soldiers / We're Marching to Zion (Medle...

Fear on the Battlefield

 C.S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

Psalm 91:1-16

English Standard Version (ESV)

My Refuge and My Fortress

91 He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High

    will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.

2 I will say[a] to the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress,

    my God, in whom I trust.”

3 For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler

    and from the deadly pestilence.

4 He will cover you with his pinions,

    and under his wings you will find refuge;

    his faithfulness is a shield and buckler.

5 You will not fear the terror of the night,

    nor the arrow that flies by day,

6 nor the pestilence that stalks in darkness,

    nor the destruction that wastes at noonday.

7 A thousand may fall at your side,

    ten thousand at your right hand,

    but it will not come near you.

8 You will only look with your eyes

    and see the recompense of the wicked.

9 Because you have made the Lord your dwelling place—

    the Most High, who is my refuge[b]—

10 no evil shall be allowed to befall you,

    no plague come near your tent.

11 For he will command his angels concerning you

    to guard you in all your ways.

12 On their hands they will bear you up,

    lest you strike your foot against a stone.

13 You will tread on the lion and the adder;

    the young lion and the serpent you will trample underfoot.

14 “Because he holds fast to me in love, I will deliver him;

    I will protect him, because he knows my name.

15 When he calls to me, I will answer him;

    I will be with him in trouble;

    I will rescue him and honor him.

16 With long life I will satisfy him

    and show him my salvation.”

I've been looking up Bible verses to find one that might show that God has promised me safety.  So far I haven't found one.  He does say He will shield me, deliver me, strengthen me for battle and surround me with His angels; but I haven't found a promise that He'll keep the scary stuff at bay.  Sigh.  I really, really don't like the scary stuff.  My God is, however, as C.S. Lewis wrote, my good King; and I believe it's better to follow a good King into the fray then let fear keep me from the battle.   

The Way Home

Hebrews 11:16

New International Version (NIV)

16 Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.

Hebrews 13:14

New International Version (NIV)

14 For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come.

Hardships often prepare ordinary people for an extraordinary destiny ~ C.S.Lewis

The shallow end of the pool is not where one learns to swim.  Mountains can't be climbed or valleys crossed unless a step is taken.  But life is scary.  It can seem too deep, too tall or too wide, but never to God.   As for me, I don't boldly go where no one has gone before; instead I chose to stand like a child "frozen" in a game of tag, with no one to unstick me.  Fear does that and more.  I know I'll eventually reach Heaven and home; but I'd like to get there panting with exertion, not idling with inertia.  I like this Crooked Still song, "Wading Deep Waters,"  because it tells me how to get Home.  

I am wading deep waters trying to get home
Lord, I am wading deep waters trying to get home
I am wading deep waters
Wading deep waters
Wading deep waters trying to get home

I am climbing high mountains trying to get home
Lord, I am climbing high mountains trying to get home
Lord, I am climbing high mountains
Climbing high mountains
Climbing high mountains trying to get home

I am walking deep valleys trying to get home
Lord, I am walking deep valleys trying to get home
I am walking deep valleys
Walking deep valleys
Walking deep valleys trying to get home

I am wading deep waters trying to get home
Lord, I am wading deep waters trying to get home
Lord, I am wading deep waters
Wading deep waters
Wading deep waters trying to get home

Trying to get home
Trying to get home
Trying to get home
Trying to get home

My God Who Fills Me

Romans 15:13

New International Version (NIV)

13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

1 Timothy 6:17

New International Version (NIV)

17 Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.

C.S. Lewis, "Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer"

I have tried...to make every pleasure into a channel of adoration. I don’t mean simply by giving thanks for it. One must of course give thanks, but I mean something different. How shall I put it?

We can’t—or I can’t—hear the song of a bird simply as a sound. Its meaning or message (‘That’s a bird’) comes with it inevitably—just as one can’t see a familiar word in print as a merely visual pattern. The reading is as involuntary as the seeing. When the wind roars I don’t just hear the roar; I ‘hear the wind.’ In the same way it is possible to ‘read’ as well as to ‘have’ a pleasure. Or not even ‘as well as.’ The distinction ought to become, and sometimes is, im- possible; to receive it and to recognise its divine source are a single experience. This heavenly fruit is instantly redolent of the orchard where it grew. This sweet air whispers of the country from whence it blows. It is a message. We know we are being touched by a finger of that right hand at which there are pleasures for evermore. There need be no question of thanks or praise as a separate event, something done afterwards. To experience the tiny theophany is itself to adore.

Gratitude exclaims, very properly, ‘How good of God to give me this.’ Adoration says, ‘What must be the quality of that Being whose far-off and momentary coruscations are like this!’ One’s mind runs back up the sunbeam to the sun.

As our beautiful summer is giving way to our usual cloudy and rainy fall, I've been thinking much about the sun I shall soon miss.  There are few things lovelier than feeling the sun's warmth on my face.  I have to close my eyes and thank God for the gift, and as C.S. Lewis writes, I must adore the Giver.  It's the rain that persists through fall, winter, and spring that makes the summer so beautiful, leading to those moments of total awe of the Creator.  So I will praise the Giver of all good things.  He does love me so.

"Oh To Be Loved" - Thad Cockrell